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Rights Groups Tell Pentagon Chief to Withhold Military Aid to Israel [1]
['Brett Wilkins', 'Brett Wilkins Is A Staff Writer For Common Dreams.']
Date: 2023-12-21 19:43:24+00:00
Citing the "staggering civilian death and destruction" caused by Israel's 76-day war on Gaza, a group of 14 humanitarian organizations on Wednesday urged Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to withhold U.S. military aid to Israel and take other steps to protect Palestinian noncombatants.
In a letter to Austin, the groups—Airwars, Amnesty International USA, Anera, Center for Civilians in Conflict, Humanity & Inclusion, Human Rights Watch, InterAction, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders USA, Norwegian Refugee Council USA, Oxfam America, PAX, Refugees International, Save the Children U.S., and Zomia Cente—asserted that the Pentagon's response to Israel's obliteration of Gaza "has failed to live up to and... actively undermined" the Defense Department's Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP).
"Israel's operations... continue to cause devastating levels of civilian harm and destruction and inhibit the provision of life-saving humanitarian aid—all using U.S. support."
Published last year, CHMR-AP lays out a series of policy steps aimed at preventing and responding to the death and injury of noncombatants. The plan was widely welcomed, but was also met with skepticism by critics who noted that the U.S. military has killed more foreign civilians than any other armed force in the world since the end of World War II, including hundreds of thousands of noncombatants during the ongoing global War on Terror.
"Israel's operations... continue to cause devastating levels of civilian harm and destruction and inhibit the provision of life-saving humanitarian aid—all using U.S. support. The result is civilian harm at a massive scale amidst a humanitarian crisis," the letter notes. "To protect civilians in Gaza and live up to the aspirations of the CHMR-AP, administration rhetoric on the protection of civilians must be backed by action and leverage."
The groups urge Austin to:
Categorically oppose the targeting of civilians and civilian objects, indiscriminate attacks that fail to distinguish between civilian and military objects, and attacks that cause disproportionate civilian harm;
Withhold U.S. assistance, in accordance with U.S. law and policy, that would facilitate violations of international humanitarian law;
Refrain from transferring explosive weapons to Israel for use in Gaza and emphasize adherence to U.S. commitments made on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas; and
Reject forcible displacement and the use of so-called "safe zones."
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